Critical Condition: The Bisexual

☆☆☆☆ “The equal-opportunity script is not afraid to call out the idiocies of other groupings: straight women who go in for lesbian tourism, straight men whose lesbian fantasies crumple on impact with a living breathing representative. It’s witty and pleasingly literate, with savvy jokes about Zadie Smith, Alain de Botton and, crushingly, Salman Rushdie … But The Bisexual’s secret weapon is its willingness to be moving. You laugh like a drain, but you care.” — The Telegraph.

☆☆☆☆ “Like with Transparent or Fleabag, the producers think their hyperverbal and neurotically self-cognisant culture of artists, academics and hedonists is far more intriguing than it really is … Inconsistently amusing, The Bisexual might have been a tight feature-length film, but the story here does not justify six 30-minute segments.” — The Hollywood Reporter.

☆☆☆☆ “Because the characters and the milieu are well observed — The Bisexual does for London what Girlsdid for New York — and naturalistically rendered, the show is moving, at unexpected times, if you have lived much life at all, or even thought about it a little.” — Los Angeles Times.

☆☆☆☆ “With its themes of rejection, betrayal and self-discovery, and a steady, hard stare at modern sexual mores, this was A Different Kind of Sex in Another City, or a reoriented Girls. Yet there was a telling scene where Leila’s friends used the TV show The L Wordas a reference, then berated themselves for being stereotypes. Here was a widening of the conversation. And it was sweet, funny and blessed with a complex star.” — Sunday Times.

☆☆☆☆ “The Bisexual was well trailed as ‘exploring… the last taboo’. It’s rather good, in its way, Desiree Akhavan and Maxine Peake as a broken lesbian couple exploring their options, but the last taboo … for whom, exactly? Turns out that this is the last taboo for lesbians, fancying a man. Crucially, it’s billed as a ‘comedy-drama’ and yet, despite Peake and Akhavan, it’s not that funny.” — The Observer.